Heartsong Cottage (32 page)

She'd never imagined she could be this happy.

When the coffee was ready, she filled a mug to take into the bathroom while she showered. She turned around.

And screamed.

*   *   *

In the creekside cabin Shannon had rented for him for the night at Angel's Rest, Daniel stared down at the phone and tried to tell himself that the dread churning through his gut was a result of his usual nightmare. Sure, he hadn't had it in weeks, but then he didn't always remember his dreams, did he? It wasn't surprising that his subconscious would churn up the old memories on the eve of his day of beginning again. Shoot, it would be more surprising if he'd not had the dream.

He threw back the covers and minutes later stood beneath a steaming shower. Speaking with Shannon had eased his mind, he insisted to himself. She was right. He was being ridiculous. This was Eternity Springs and Russell Wilbarger was under house arrest in Virginia, wearing a bracelet, and being surveilled by members of Callahan's security team. Shannon was in no danger from him.

Yet, as he switched off the water and grabbed a fluffy white towel, his stomach continued to churn.

Wilbarger could have hired someone to do his dirty work. What about the senior senator himself? Everyone said he was a fine person, that he and his wife were devastated by their son's criminality. But Daniel hadn't met an honest politician yet.

He should have planned today better. He hadn't anticipated that she'd kick him out of Heartsong Cottage last night before midnight, so he hadn't arranged extra security. He should have argued with her more, but he'd been in a mellow mood after all the toasts his brothers and friends had offered last night at the rehearsal dinner. And to be perfectly honest, he liked holding to traditions, himself.

“This is Eternity Springs,” he muttered as he pulled on his jeans. “The Mayberry of Colorado. She's fine. She's safe.”

And the last time your intuition screamed at you this way a predator tortured and murdered your son.

He muttered a curse and called Brick Callahan.

“Sure, I'll head over there right now,” the young owner of the region's newest tourist attraction, a “glam” camp, said after Daniel explained the situation to him.

“Thank you. I know it's probably unnecessary, but having you with her will ease my mind.”

“Glad to be of assistance.”

Daniel finished dressing and went up to the main house for breakfast. The restaurant was filled with family in town for his wedding, and for a time, they proved to be a fine distraction.

And yet, the unease continued to slither through him.

*   *   *

Shannon couldn't take her gaze off the pieces of shattered coffee mug scattered across the kitchen floor. As long as she didn't shift her stare, she wouldn't see the blood staining the tile. Brick's blood.

She prayed his head was as hard as his uncle Gabe claimed, and that no permanent damage had been done by the frying pan the stranger had hit him with after forcing Shannon to call out for Brick to enter Heartsong Cottage. Head cuts always bled a lot, didn't they? And he wouldn't still be bleeding if he were dead, right? Surely the reason why he hadn't regained consciousness was due to whatever had been in the syringe the doctor had stuck him with.

The doctor. Judging from his rambling rants, she surmised he was a doctor, anyway. He'd arrived with a black leather doctor's bag and handled a scalpel like an extension of himself. She'd never seen the man before in her life.

He had nothing to do with Russell Wilbarger. He wasn't her enemy, at all. He was here because of Daniel.

He said Daniel's name with absolute loathing in his voice.

Another wave of fear crashed over her. She tugged ineffectively at the zip ties he'd fastened around her wrists and ankles.

He paced the cottage like a tiger, muttering and periodically snapping the rubber band he wore around his wrist. “We wanted another child for so long. When I discovered that Linda is finally pregnant again, I bought a stuffed lamb for her. So soft and cuddly. Benny loves cuddly. I know Megan will, too. It plays ‘Jesus Loves Me.'” He laughed bitterly. “What a crock.”

Linda. Benny. A pregnancy. Shannon realized just who had invaded her home. This was the man from whom Linda and her son had been hiding when Daniel served as their bodyguard. How did he get out of jail?

He whirled toward her, his red-rimmed hazel-colored eyes glowing with a haunted fury. “People talk like he's a god, you know. Your Daniel. I saw it on the news. On Christmas Day. He's such a fraud. A liar and a fraud.”

Shannon wanted to speak up and defend Daniel. She wanted to reason with this man, but she'd tried that already. It hadn't helped; he'd acted even more deranged, pointing at her with the scalpel, bringing it to within an inch of her face.

“So he thinks he gets to be a new daddy, does he? He can by God think again. He stole my family from me. Next Christmas, he can be the one with presents under the tree that will never be opened. He can be the one whose milk and cookies for Santa sit and go sour and stale.”

The stranger paced as he ranted, and Shannon watched for an opening of some sort, any sort, her mind racing. She had to do something, but what? Soupy was napping as usual in her bed in the bedroom. Should Shannon call for her and command her to attack?

Yeah, right. If the doctor were allergic to dog slobber from being licked repeatedly, perhaps. Soupy didn't even have a tail to whip him with. Her little nub might wiggle nonstop, but it was no weapon.

“It can't be allowed to happen, of course,” the doctor declared. “My mother cried all Christmas Day. Cried and cried and cried. Meanwhile, Garrett sat there looking so happy. That other family was so happy. No. No. No. That just can't be.”

Shannon breathed a tiny bit easier when he set down his scalpel. Then he reached into his bag and pulled out another syringe and a little bottle. “No. No. No. He shouldn't have been happy. I lost my babies.”

He stared at Shannon, a maniacal glint in his eyes. “He needs to lose his, too.”

*   *   *

Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!

The voice echoed in his mind as clear as the wind chimes hanging on Angel's Rest's front porch and a black tidal wave of dread roared over Daniel. In the process of stirring cream into his third cup of coffee, the silver spoon rattled against the china coffee cup.

Something is very wrong.

Brick hadn't called him. He'd had plenty of time to arrive at Heartsong Cottage. He should have called by now.

Something is very, very wrong.

Without conscious thought, he abruptly shoved to his feet. “I've got to go,” he said to his brothers.

“Now there's one nervous bridegroom,” Nick Garrett said.

Daniel didn't waste time on an explanation. He didn't have one to give. All he knew for certain was that he had to get to Shannon fast.

He grabbed his jacket from the hall tree on his way past it and hit the front door at a fast walk. When he descended the front steps, he broke into a run.

Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!

The last time he'd had a sick feeling like this he'd lost his family. “God, please.”

Overnight, more than a foot of new snow had blanketed the valley, and he ran the path by memory, forging his own way to the footbridge spanning Angel Creek. He yanked his phone from his pocket and hit the speed dial for Shannon.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Voice mail
. He hit end and as he pounded across dialed Brick's number.
Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Voice mail.

No. No, no, no.
He kicked his pace up a gear, running as fast as he could manage through the snow. There was a reason neither one of them answered. Maybe she was already at the salon and she couldn't hear the phone ring over the roar of blow-dryers.

Daddy. Daddy. Daddy.

Let this be nothing more than paranoia. Let Shannon answer the door and fuss and fume at me for spoiling the whole tradition thing.

He dialed her number again. Still no answer. He ran up Cottonwood to Fifth Street, then over to Pinion and turned south. Urgency dogged his steps. With every second that passed, the certainty that Shannon needed him strengthened.

Finally, he passed the intersection of Pinion and Third. In the middle of the block light glowed in the windows of Heartsong Cottage.

*   *   *

As Shannon watched the stranger fill the hypodermic with a clear fluid, panic washed through her and she felt the flutter in her womb that was her baby. A voice like that of a child rang clearly in her mind.
“Talk to him. Ask him about his family. Give Daddy time to get here to save Sister.”

With that, she knew what to do.

She knew Daniel would come to save them. She needed to keep herself and their child safe until he got here.

Praying she chose the right path, she asked, “Tell me about Megan. It's a lovely name.”

At her question, the man went still. He closed his eyes and shuddered. “Megan Elizabeth. My choice. Linda thinks she can name her something else.”

Shannon swallowed hard. “Megan Elizabeth. That's beautiful. I'll bet she'll be a beautiful child.”

“She'll be an angel. My angel. I never would hurt her. Never! Just like I'd never hurt Benny. I'd cut off my right arm first. It was all a mistake. I didn't mean to do it. Linda … she just freaked out. She shouldn't have freaked out.”

You shouldn't have hit her.

“They say I'm a sex offender. It's not true. It's a lie. It's a horrible label. It was a mistake. That's all. A mistake. I'd had too much to drink, and I was online and surfing around. I clicked something I shouldn't have clicked. I'm not even sure how I got there.”

Shannon bit back the caustic comment she would have made under different circumstances—
gee, maybe using the search term “child porn”?
—and said instead, “I've done some ill-advised things when under the influence.”

“Then you understand! She didn't. She wouldn't listen. I didn't know what they did on that island, either. It was all a mistake. Linda wouldn't listen, and now they've given me that horrible label and taken my children away. And he helped them do it. Daniel Garrett. He took what was mine … so now I'll take his.”

He advanced on her, and Shannon recognized that she'd run out of time. She prepared to use the final weapons in her limited arsenal—a bloodcurdling scream and launching herself at the intruder's knees—when movement in the the kitchen doorway caught her attention.

Her groom had come to ruin the wedding-day tradition.

Thank God.

*   *   *

Having stealthily entered the kitchen, Daniel heard the stranger's declaration and immediately identified him. Dr. Mason Tate. Benny's father, Linda's soon-to-be ex-husband. Daniel's blood ran cold, then immediately fired hot.
No, you won't take my family. You damned well won't.

Time slowed to a crawl as he swiftly considered the handful of different actions available to him. Attempt to reason or attack? Be bold or sneaky? Use a weapon or only his martial arts training?

No sense trying reason. The guy had tracked him down to Eternity Springs, attacked Brick—out, but breathing regularly—and was threatening Shannon. He's obviously insane.

Daniel lifted Soupy's leash from its hook beside the back door and moved swiftly as the doctor advanced on Shannon, the hypodermic gripped and raised like a knife in his right hand. Two long strides took Daniel up behind him. Hearing him, Tate started to turn, but Daniel was on him before he could mount a defense.

Daniel did a low sweeping kick with his left leg, hitting the doctor at the ankles and dropping him to his left. The sweeping kick spun Daniel to his right and all the way around.

As Tate hit the ground, he kept hold of the syringe with his right arm up, successfully avoiding pricking his own skin. As Daniel completed his turn, he shifted his weight onto his left foot and performed a side kick into the doctor's right elbow. The crack of bone was audible as the arm broke. Tate screamed and dropped the syringe.

Daniel reached down and grabbed the broken arm and pulled it above the doctor's head, forcing him onto his stomach. Daniel then planted a knee in the bastard's back and tied him with Soupy's leash.

It had taken only seconds. Daniel focused all of his attention on Shannon. “Are you okay?”

“I'm fine. I'm fine. But we need to call Rose. He gave Brick a shot of some sort. The bottle is on the desk.”

Daniel rose and dragged the moaning doctor farther away from Shannon before looking at the bottle and removing a pair of scissors from the desk drawer. “It's a sedative.”

Daniel quickly snipped the ties binding Shannon's wrists and ankles, then moved to stand over the doctor. He yanked his head up by his hair. “How much did you give him?”

The doctor blubbered a response. Daniel looked to Shannon. “Call Rose. I'll call Zach.”

In less than ten minutes, Eternity Springs' sheriff, physician, and half of the Callahan clan crowded into Shannon's living room.

After relaying their story to the interested parties, and with both Brick and the assailant in good hands, Daniel led Shannon into their bedroom and shut the door. He took her into his arms and hugged her tight, burying his face in her hair. Shaking like a tree in a gale, he breathed his first easy breath all day.

“Ah, jeeze, Shannon. Ah, jeeze.”

“I know. I know.” She gave a shaky little laugh and asked, “What took you so long to get here?”

“I didn't want to spoil the whole tradition thing.”

“Traditions are overrated.”

Grinning, he pressed a kiss against her hair. “Glad to hear you've come around to my way of thinking.”